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2 thoughts on “Poems to Share: Gary Soto”

Love Gary Soto! We read “Baseball in April and other stories” each year in 6th grade. “Broken Chain” is one of my favorites in that collection, mostly for how it ends: “It took all of Alfonso’s strength to steady the bike. He started off slowly, gritting his teeth, because she was heavier
than he thought. But once he got going, it got easier. He pedaled smoothly, sometimes with only one hand on the handlebars, as they sped up one street and down another. Whenever he ran over a pothole, which was often, she screamed with delight, and once, when it looked like they were going to crash, she placed her hand over his, and it felt like love.”

I first got attached with “Partly Cloudy: Poems of love and longing.” I think my favorite part of Soto is how accepting he is of young emotions. Like the part you quoted, which is beautiful and lyrical and unapologetically a tiny bit sappy. I also made my first Wikipedia edit on his article, which is a happy memory 🙂 Thanks for sharing your experience with him! I should probably take the time to read some of his other collections.